Diving  is a  potentially  hazardous  activity.  The materials  contained within  this  magazine  are for informational purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for proper and appropriate training.

Developments in Diving

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach." - Aldous Huxley.

Recorded history is rich in accounts of  mankind's attempts  to live and  work underwater for extended  periods of time.  Driven  by the fortunes  to be made  in salvaging  cargoes from  sunken vessels, scores of inventors  have - over the centuries - turned  their minds to the problems of maintaining a diver at depth for meaningful periods of time.  But all too often the inherent faults in these  contraptions made diving a short-lived occupation with the majority of designers being literally obliged to bury their mistakes!

Augustus Siebe - the father of modern diving

The history of modern diving, properly  begins, however,  in 1819   with    the    patented invention, by Augustus Siebe, of an open  helmet  to which, in  1837, he  added  a flexible dress. With a constant supply of air pumped down  from the surface,  divers  wearing  this equipment   performed    out- standing feats of salvage.

Although both  practical  and functional, divers  making use of    Siebe's     diving    dress remained  dependent  on  the surface and  were  restricted in   their  ability   to   explore underwater  by  the umbilical air  hoses  and  safety  lines.

For more  information   on early diving apparatus,  check out the historical     diving     society   at http://hds.org/index.html

Almost SCUBA

Siebe's First Helmet (1819)

Not  until  1865  did  the  dream  of a self-contained  diving apparatus come close   to  reality.  In  that  year  two Frenchmen,    a    mining     engineer, Rouquayrol    and   a    Navy   officer, Denayrouze,  designed a  diving dress consisting    of    a    leather     mask connected  by  a   rubber  tube  to  a back-mounted air reservoir fitted with a non-return valve which received air pumped   down   from   the   surface. Compensating        for      hydrostatic pressure    and   depth,   a   regulator released  air  from  the  tank  into the mouthpiece and  enabled the   user to detach the  pump-line and walk freely on  the  seabed   for short  periods of time    while     breathing    from   the reservoir.  But   while   the    principles   of   the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze   system  be- came   the   precursor   for     today's regulators, there  were, at  that time, no  containers  available   that   could hold  vast  quantities  of  air  at  high pressure.

left Rouquayrol-Denayrouse Apparatus

Rebreathers:  Everything old is new again! The first truly  self-contained diving  dress is credited to  Englishman, Henry Fleuss, who, in the  early  1870's, had  perfected  an oxygen  rebreathing  apparatus  consisting  of a cylinder of oxygen compressed to 30 atmospheres and a flexible bag between which was an oxygen regenerating device to absorb  the expired CO2.  (The absorbent consisted of rope yarns soaked in caustic potash.)  Although  the equipment  proved very successful, (and paved the way for today's rebreathers), the device was still dependent on the diver wearing the traditional helmet, dress and boots then in common use.    Although  the diver  now had  limited freedom, demand  for this  type of  equipment  was limited.  Divers - more so then than now - were  traditionalists who favoured heavy-duty equipment commensurate with the  tasks that they  were called upon to perform:  Diving for pleasure was unthinkable and many years into the future.

Seeing is believing! In  the  Mediterranean  of  the  1920's  individuals  were  discovering  for themselves  the beauty of the  underwater world.  Replacing  early goggles, single-lens  masks  began  to appear  which - strangely - did  not cover  the nose.  To  equalise  pressure, the  wearer simply  squeezed  rubber bulbs of  air attached to  the  mask.  It  seems that  everybody suddenly hit upon the idea of tucking the nose inside  the mask at the comparatively late stage of 1938. These  early  skin diving enthusiasts  were also  experimenting with  breathing tubes  and with the idea of increasing their speed underwater by the use of 'fins'.

"Fins ain't what they used to be"! It may be supposed  that the use of fins was an ancient idea, but in fact  their   introduction  can   be pinned    down  to   one   man,  a Frenchman,   De  Corlieu,   who in 1929   designed  and  produced  a pair    of   rubber   fins   that   he patented in 1933. Owen Churchill, an American, saw fins  being   used  by   natives  in Tahiti and brought  a pair back to America  where he  improved  the design, testing them with the help of   Olympic    swimmers,   Johnny Weismuller   and    Larry   'Buster' Crabbe, (both of whom  portrayed Tarzan in early movies!). Later  discovering  that these fins had been  patented by De Corlieu, Churchill   bought  the    right   to manufacture them  under licence. In 1940 he sold  946  pairs around the   world.  During   the  war  he manufactured 25,000 pairs for use by   Allied   swimmers.   In   1944, when  the  British   and  American Underwater    Demolition    Teams cleared the Normandy  beaches of explosive  ordnance,  the   French invention  arrived  home  from  its world tour.

The dream becomes reality. In  1933, while  the  fins  were still  in   their  infancy, Yves  Le  Prieur, (the  French  Navy Commander who  had  designed  the  single lens  mask  for use  in submarine  escape), had devised a SCUBA using  a compressed  air cylinder  slung on the chest  with  a rubber tube leading to a full-face mask.  Lacking a regulator, the diver hand-valved air into the mask as required.  Improving  upon  this  apparatus  another  Frenchman,  Georges  Commeines,  perfected  a semi-automatic regulator with  which he dived  to a depth  of 166 feet  in 1943 -  one year before his death during the  liberation of Strasbourg - and the same  year in which Jacques Cousteau and engineer, Emile Gagnan looked at the early  Rouquayrol-Denayrouze designed regulator  and  decided  that  that was  exactly  what  was  required  for  the  sport diving enthusiast - almost 78 years after it had been invented.  Popularised  by Costeau's  book, "The Silent World", (and  able  to take  advantage  of new technology that  made it possible for  cylinders to hold  large concentrations  of air at  high pressures), this fully automatic regulator  revolutionised diving  and paved  the way for the growth of an activity now enjoyed by millions.